Websex - What's the harm? BBC3 9PM

To be a man in the modern age and to never have seen any pictures of naked ladies on the internet is like owning a car and never having used the steering wheel. I would actually think you were extremely odd individual never to have done so.

We buy our shopping online, we talk to friends online, we get our news online it was only a matter of time before we got our sex online. Whilst I have had the odd "liaison" through the medium of online dating what I have got up is small potatoes compared to what today's kids are getting up to on the Wild Wild Web.

Last night's BBC3 documentary by the delightful Nathalie Emmanuel, catering predominantly for the 16-24 crowd, casts its eye on the myriad of tools available for tech-savvy youth to get their end away.

One such tool is Facebook. Whilst I've only ever really used it to share idle banter and show off exotic holiday photos some actively use social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo to find potential sexy time. One such brazen lothario is 18yr old Raf, less a man and more a crafty penis on legs, who treats his conquests like a video game where befriending and shagging a victim equals

"passing a level"

He describes trawling Facebook for pretty girls and then getting friendly with them on Blackberry messenger. He charmingly has them divided on his phone into different types like "special gash" & "sociable gash". Now that's organisation.

He then is kind enough to show presenter Nathalie where the magic happens, a grubby log strewn area deep in the woods of Birmingham where he woos his subjects in the hope of getting "B.J's" as he

"doesn't like to spend money on them"

Its not just straight men that treat the internet as a sex supermarket. Gay guys even have their own App called Grindr which has 2m users using GPS on their phones to put them in touch with other gay guys in the area. Walking around Soho with her gay guide, Nathalie seems to be on a sexual treasure hunt as the place is swarming with guys looking to

"get a bit of cock"

For shy people the App is incredibly useful and it obviously circumvents that tricky conundrum for any homosexual guy "How do I know if the guy I hit on is straight or gay". It must avoid a million black eyes.

One segment that caught my attention was the practice of Camming i.e using a webcam to post live video of yourself naked. Apparently there are quite a few sites you can go to where strangers will show you their bits for free. Nathalie interviews Kane a guy in his early 20's who started using them in his teens to overcome his shyness with the opposite sex and has now has no problem exposing himself.

"My worries and doubts are gone when there is a naked girl in front of you"

Now he is an old hand and takes Nathalie on a tour of camming sites which seem to consist exclusively of horny guys with their dicks out.

"But it’s a Wednesday afternoon?

exclaims Nathalie desperately before proclaiming that she doesn't want this type of thing "in her face". Probably not the best choice of words in the circumstances.

It is clear from the programme that men are still more at ease using the internet for sexual motives then women. This is somewhat reassuring for me as it shows society has completely degenerated into Bacchanalian levels of depravity. There is a new sister app for straights called Blendr that works in the same way as it's homosexual counterpart but there are about 10 male profiles to everyone female profile listed. There is still the stigma for openly sexually women who would be considered sluts whereas their male counterparts will be given a hearty pat on the back for their sexual conquests.

Sadly the internet isn't a magic tool to make all your dreams come true. There are downsides. First of all and fairly obviously with more sex comes more STD's of which there has been a massive increase. Even if you decide to partake in the much safer pursuit of "camming" there is a risk that your images will be hijacked or capped by unscrupulous types keen to sell your images to porn websites and circulated around the world. What may have been a private moment between you and your other half can turn you into an unwitting porn star.

Also whatever you do, don't piss off a vindictive partner as nowadays the internet can make your life hell. Nathalie interviews Peter who after catching his girlfriend cheating on him changed her Facebook profile picture to one of her completely naked and playing with herself (perhaps not the sort girl you would take home to meet mother) and changed her occupation to "loves sucking cock". You have to admire his creative chutzpah.

So the internet, once only the realm of weirdoes in rain macs, has opened up a liberating new realm of sexual possibilities for all personality types and using it for this purpose is now considered mainstream behaviour. There is no stigma to internet dating these days and I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before that same nonchalant attitude transfers over to those who want nothing more than quick shag.

So the question is, if everyone is at it why aren't you?

You can watch it on the I-Player until 27th Jan here